


Just Don't Frighten the Horses: Discussing porn and kink in fandom, and how it relates to the outside world

by fandomdoc



Category: Hannibal (TV), Supernatural, Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: Discussion of kink, Gen, Meta, Minor Dean Winchester/Sam Winchester, Pro-Kink, Sort Of, anti-censorship, discussion of fandom issues, pro-ship
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-10
Updated: 2019-07-10
Packaged: 2020-06-25 23:28:29
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 12,390
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19755940
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/fandomdoc/pseuds/fandomdoc
Summary: This is a very long meta/thesis about shipping and sex in fandom, and how it relates to issues outside of fandom. Make sure to check the tags. See author's notes.





	Just Don't Frighten the Horses: Discussing porn and kink in fandom, and how it relates to the outside world

**Author's Note:**

> Hi! This is a research paper/meta/thesis that I've been working on for quite some time. It's for a specific purpose. I would like to take this research and find a way to turn it into a documentary. I'm looking for partners. So, if you like what you read, and you want to spend a few frustrating years turning it into another format, please let me know. You can reach me at [fandomdocumentary on Tumblr](http://fandomdocumentary.tumblr.com)
> 
> The title comes from an Oscar Wilde quote, "I have no objection to anyone's sex life as long as they don't practice it in the street and frighten the horses."
> 
> This is a controversial subject, and there will be controversial arguments in this work. So, just to let you know. Please don't leave abuse in the comments.

Women as human beings has always been a controversial subject. The ancient Greeks believed that women were just deformed men, in a way. According to Jean-Baptiste Bonnard, “[t]he difference between male and female bodies, whether described as radical (difference in nature) or relative (greater or lesser degree of perfection), is always presented...by reference to the male body, compared with which the female body is thought of in terms of incompleteness or inversion” (Bonnard 2013). Women were only supposed to go to college to earn their Mrs., slasher movies were rallied against because it was the women who always prevailed, the survivor girl, men still try to dictate what women are allowed and not allowed to do with their own bodies, and now there is the restriction of women's pleasure. Women are told that there's only one way to lose your virginity, and that's through penetration. Then they are told that this act is painful, it is bloody, it is sacred and should only be done with someone you love, that it is a gift. This basically amounts to being thought of as prizes, which leads to the extinguishing of female pleasure. If women are gifts, prizes, and conquests then they only exist to serve male pleasure. Female pleasure is taboo, less than, and insignificant. This is true not only for sexual pleasure, but also for any kind of activity that is primarily enjoyed by women. Take boy bands for example. Boy bands are considered to be silly, and not real music. Who is the primary audience of boy bands? Girls. Let's not forget that The Beatles started as a boy band, but yet somehow they're respectable while The Backstreet Boys aren't. What’s the difference? Men are the difference. In fact, when the Beatles made their first live television appearance in the United States on _The Ed Sullivan Show_ on February 9, 1964, pretty much every newspaper in the country said that the Beatles were a “fad,” and “could not carry a tune across the Atlantic.” Yet, in 1988 the Beatles were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of fame. (“The Beatles”)Another example of this is romance novels. Romance is a genre mostly written by women and read by women, and it is very looked down on in literary circles. However, romance sells very well as a genre. In fact, romance is the top-selling genre. In 2013, romance sells equaled 1.44 billion dollars.(Stewart2014) They are also related to fanfiction in that they are a way for women to explore their sexuality and sexual kinks. It is mostly said to be an inferior genre because of the use of tropes, cliches, and predictability. This reasoning is flawed, because these criticisms don’t just apply to the romance genre, but other genres as well. (Smith 2018) Some of these tropes include in crime fiction: missing persons, cold cases. Fantasy fiction often has fairy tale retellings. Action and Adventure often includes the military and secret codes. Even literary fiction is not immune, the genre frequently features small towns and family sagas. (Laube 2018)Yet, it’s only romance and erotic fiction written by women that seems to be dragged so much by critics. In fact, novelist Curtis Sittenfeld, who has written a romance novel by the name of _Eligible_ , said that she “read a lot of romances but [she] reached a point where [she] recognized that most romances are badly written, which annoyed [her]” (Flood 2016). Which leads into the main argument of this paper, being against the suppression of explicit material in fandom, as it is especially geared towards women and minorities.

The history of fandom is very important to discuss especially as it relates to women, the LGTBQ community, and other marginalized communities. Fandom, of course, is not new. People have been fans of things since there were things to be fans of, look at sports teams and their fans painting their faces and bodies and cheering in the stands. However, when women become a primary part of fandom is when things get tricky. To explore this history, let's look at the history of slash shipping. Slash shipping is shipping two men together, while femslash is shipping two women together. The first mainstream slash ship in fandom was from _Star Trek._ The ship was Kirk/Spock. Keep in mind, that this was the age before people had the internet. There was no going online to post your fic, or to squee about it on Tumblr. Instead, there were printed copies of slash fiction in magazines (zines) that were put together by fans, primarily women. Fans had some other outlets, such as conventions (which were also organized by women), but for fanworks, zines were where it was at. One of these zines was called “Not Tonight Spock!” but there are many others as well. (Not Tonight Spock!) The internet changed fandom, made it more widespread, and anonymous. It also became easier to connect with fellow fans. Slash fiction was still a thing. For example, a popular “free web-hosting service” was GeoCities, and fans used it for fanworks, and “zine advertising” (GeoCities).Then there was Livejournal. Livejournal is still around, but not without some problems, just like Tumblr still exists. There came a new threat to fanfiction writers and fanartists. The threat of lawsuits under copyright laws. There were several people who tried to sue the fans for making fanworks. Anne Rice is one of those people. On her website, she stated, “I do not allow fan fiction. The characters are copyrighted. It upsets me terribly to even think about fan fiction with my characters. I advise my readers to write your own original characters. It is absolutely essential that you respect my wishes.” Rice started to send cease and desist letters to her fans that were writing fanfiction. TBQ on Tumblr said “She had her lawyer send Cease & Desist orders out to various high-profile members of the fanfic side of fandom. Some of those C&Ds implicated the private businesses of the people involved. Because all of us were poor, we didn’t challenge the C&Ds. Instead we took our stuff off the websites they knew about and hid the fic away.” (Anne Rice)As a result of these attempted suits, there started to be disclaimers put on fanfics. Disclaimers about how the characters didn't belong to the author, that they weren't getting money from it, and a plea not to sue them for the money that they didn't have.

On May 29,2007, there was Strikethrough. This was a purge of journals on Livejournal. The lists of banned and purged journals included the following: child pornography, incest, pedophilia, rape, domestic violence, BDSM, and prostitution. Of course, no one is going to argue with banning of child pornography or pedophilia. In fact, this argument is used pretty often when it comes to banning sex in fandom, because who's going to argue with it? The problem is, they're trigger words. These words get people up in arms to save the children. But in fandom, there are no children to be saved, since the content is fictional. The group “Warriors for Innocence” was behind Strikethrough. Their stated goal was that they were “hunting pedophiles where they fester.” Pedophiles, huh? Among the journals they got deleted were also included: RPG journals, book discussion groups, rape survivor groups, and of course, fannish groups. It can't be argued that this was a covering of the bases, making sure that illegal things weren't happening on the platform even though “Warriors for Justice” claimed they were working with law enforcement, as they let some questionable journals stay; which included journals about drug use, theft, murder, tax evasion, and election fraud. Also, BDSM is not an illegal practice. However, anyone who disagreed with “Warriors” was called a pedophile or a pedophile apologist. Remember, pedophile is a trigger word. This will come up again. After Strikethrough came Boldthrough a few months later. This involved a lot of the same issues as Strikethrough, and more fannish journals were deleted. (Strikethrough and Boldthrough) On September 12, 2002, Fanfiction.net banned NC-17 content. This actually had a similar story to Strikethrough. There was a group called “Critics United” that targeted fics they thought were inappropriate by leaving abusive comments in the reviews. They would also report these fics to the site. What happened next was a mass deletion of fics. Some people argued that this was not censorship since Fanfiction.net is a private website. One of the user comments supports this by stating, “you don’t have to pay to post on the site. I kinda don’t get the uproar, myself. They have every right to ban NC-17 fic if they want. Its a private site. They also banned real person stories, like Survivor fanfic… and no one seems to think thats censorship.” The definition of censorship is “the suppression or prohibition of any parts of books, films, news, etc. that are considered obscene, politically unacceptable, or a threat to security.” Fanfiction.net did ban fics that they considered to be “obscene.” Their official statement from the purge states that NC-17 fics will no longer be allowed because “they have generated almost all of the complaints filed on record….moreover, the highest concentration of them are growing in areas with subjects targeted to younger readers and with increasingly controversial subject matters.” It is very important to remember that the site also removed people’s works. If fans who had their work purged from the site did not have any backup to those fics, then they were just lost. Fanfiction.net deleted stories, just as Livejournal purged journals. This is somewhat comparable to book burnings. People had their work deleted without notification, before they could make sure it was saved somewhere else, somewhere safe.These works are gone because terms of service were changed without notice, or because someone found them to be inappropriate. It’s hard to argue that isn’t censorship. (Fanfiction.Net’s NC-17 Purges:2002 and 2012) Their statement is very telling. It can be compared to what Tumblr stated about their ban of NC-17 material. When the Tumblr purge occurred the statement that the staff released said that “posting anything that is harmful to minors, including child pornography, is abhorrent and has no place in our community.” This statement can not really be argued with, and the staff addresses this before they go into detail about the ban. Their reasoning behind the ban is that they “have a responsibility to consider [their] impact across different age groups, demographics, cultures, and mindsets.” They went on to say that “without [adult] content [they] have the opportunity to create a place where more people feel comfortable expressing themselves.” (A better, more positive Tumblr)

The anti movement on Tumblr is very important to discuss as it is tied up with the banning of fannish content on platforms. The definition of an anti is a fan who is against a ship, and attacks people for shipping it due to “moral” reasons. More specifically, according to Tumblr blogger shinelikethunder antis “Categorically [declare] certain forms of fan engagement (ships, characters, fanart styles, video game mods…) to be _intrinsically_ morally wrong and in need of stamping out, regardless of how or why one engages with them.” Their argument is usually that supporting problematic ships translates into supporting similar relationships in real life. For example, calling out people who ship Sam and Dean Winchester together (Wincest shippers) because it is an incestuous relationship. Some of these ships are insinuated to be “pedophilic”, which is the trigger word that has been previously discussed in this essay. Antis have gone so far as to report blogs and works that have content they disagree with, as well as suicide baiting in the ship tags on Tumblr. They have also tried to get close to fans who engage in what they consider “problematic” content. They pretend to be interested in the same things, gain their trust, and take screenshots of private conversations. After they have collected “evidence” they post it in on their own blogs in call out posts. Some of the posts that antis have posted have included “i personally think that r*ylo could count as pedophiia considering that rey is 19 and kyle is 30-something.” (relyohate on Tumblr) Reylo is the ship of Rey and Kylo Ren from the new trilogy of _Star Wars_. Obviously, a relationship between a nineteen year old and a thirty year old is not pedophilia, but this is pretty common rhetoric found among antis. According to drarry on Tumblr “someone once messaged [them] to let [them] know that Hannibal’s and Will’s age gap was problematic.” On a reblog of drarry’s post Tumblr user littlesystems added “I had a discourse post blow up where I referenced Hannigram and got multiple [people] saying that it was pedophilia.” The relationship between Hannibal and Will Graham on _Hannibal_ is between two men, the youngest in his thirties. Antis have invaded fandom safe spaces, for people to talk about their ships by pretending to be someone who likes the same ships they do. For example, there was a call out post on Tumblr that was telling people to block and report a certain artist because “they draw/support incest.”The person that made the call out post shared photos of supposed human ashes that they took from their job at a funeral home, and said that they had eaten ashes before. They have since said that they were lying in order to make friends with shippers. However, this backfired and the shippers were horrified at the post. It’s interesting to note that this person attacked people for shipping incest and underaged ships but then allegedly pretended that they ate ashes. This person presents themselves as someone who is against fictional ships, citing that shipping an incestuous ship makes the shipper a pedophile; shouldn’t they be held up to the same standards? Anti arguments make shippers into abusers. For example, “Wincest is so fucking gross and stupid like who in their right mind would ship two brothers that doesn’t even make sense like would you fuck your sibling ever no then don’t do that to Sam and Dean you guys are the worst people in this fandom and I hope you know that there is a special part of hell for creatures like you you guys aren’t better than people that are paedophiles” (jackson-jacklaope).This is a post that is in the wincest tag on Tumblr. It compares shipping a fictional ship to pedophilia and threatens the shippers with hell. There are more like this, usually always put in the tags so that shippers looking for wincest content will get threats and disgust instead. This argument has no basis in reality. There has been literary fiction that has included similar relationships. For example, _Lolita_ and _Flowers in the Attic._ If every book was censored and banned that people found problematic, there would be no literature left.

Following along the anti movement, Ted Bundy is also used as a source that porn is bad and should be censored. On January 23, 1989 Ted Bundy was interviewed by James Dobson. In the interview he said violence in the media and violent porn are what causes him to rape and murder people. When Dobson asks how Bundy got to the point of raping and killing women, Bundy responds, “This is something, I think, that I want to emphasize is the most damaging kinds of pornography in my opinion, and again I’m talking from personal experience, hard, real personal experience. The most damaging kinds of pornography are those that involve violence, and sexual violence because the wedding of those two forces, as I know only too well, brings about behavior that is just too terrible to describe” (Fatal Addiction: Ted Bundy’s Last Interview)However, the interviewer should be looked at in this situation as well. James Dobson founded the Family Research Council an anti-LGBT Evangelical Christian group. The Family Research Council believes that “one of the primary goals of the homosexual rights movement is to abolish all age of consent laws and to eventually recognize pedophiles as the ‘prophets’ of a new sexual order” (Knight and York 1999) Dobson is also very anti-porn, in general. Most researchers agree that Bundy’s statements to Dobson were lies to try to manipulate Dobson by playing into his beliefs. (Goldstein 1989) Porn can have effects on real life, but it doesn’t create rapists and murderers. There is probably some truth to the idea that porn has a sexist effect on the people who watch it. To clarify, this refers to mainstream heterosexual porn. However, the chicken and egg argument is apt here. Sexism has existed in society for thousands of years. Porn draws from the sexism that already exists, and reinforces to the viewer these sexist ideas. It’s a very circular cycle. The provable effect that is caused by porn, by which is meant created solely by porn, is porn addiction. There are some devastating consequences that result from porn addiction, but rape and murder are not listed among them. In fact, one such consequence is less interest in engaging in sex with another person which invalidates Ted Bundy’s statement. (Studies linking porn use or porn/sex addiction to sexual dysfunctions, lower arousal, and lower sexual & relationship satisfaction)

Women's sexual pleasure has always been a little bit of a taboo subject, and not just sexual pleasure, but a woman being comfortable with her body. _Fifty Shades of Grey_ is a good example of shaming women for sexual fantasies. While it might not be the most well written book, it serves a purpose. The arguments against this novel tends to be women will learn bad BDSM practices from reading it. These arguments have gone so far as to call for banning and censoring the book. Amy Bonomi, a professor at Michigan State University said, “We recognize that the depiction of violence against women in and of itself is not problematic, especially if the depiction attempts to shed serious light on the problem. The problem comes when the depiction reinforces the acceptance of the status quo, rather than challenging it” (McCoy 2014) If women read it, they might think that abuse in BDSM is normal. But with Google so readily available, is this really a concern? _50 Shades_ is not an instruction manual, it is an erotic novel. If it piques someone's curiosity about BDSM, there are further readings they can look into. Realistic porn is kind of an oxymoron, and what's wrong with that? It's fantasy, and in the case of _50 Shades_ there's a little rape and humiliation fantasy thrown in. Rape and humiliation are not uncommon themes in fanfic which _50 Shades_ started out as. They are common fantasies for women. It doesn't mean they want to raped and humiliated, just like incest fantasy doesn't mean you want to have sex with your relatives. In the case of women's bodies, let's look at Kim Kardashian. She posted a nude selfie and put it on her Twitter, and women told her that she should be ashamed, and conduct herself with more decorum because she was a role model. In particular, Chloe Grace Moretz, an actress, tweeted, “I truly hope you realize how important setting goals are for young women, teaching them we have so much more to offer than just our bodies” (Johnson 2016). This is anti-feminist on two levels. One, that people are telling another person, a woman, what she can and can't do with her body, as if her body belongs to them to control. Two, that people are saying young women shouldn't see pictures of naked women because it's indecent. This teaches little girls that their bodies are shameful, unnatural, something to be hidden away. If society, even women, sees women's bodies as deviant, how can women's sexual pleasure be seen any differently?

There was a study that stated that “young adult women who read _50 Shades of Grey_ are more likely than non-readers to exhibit signs of eating disorders and have a verbally abusive partner” (titlthat). However, this study states that research could not prove which came first. Did the women read _50 Shades of Grey_ , and then develop eating disorders and get into a relationship with an abusive partner? Or did these women already have these factors in their lives before they read the novel? The study couldn’t answer the question. In fact, _50 Shades of Grey_ is widely popular, and the book broke records. It was the first book to sell more than a million copies on the Amazon Kindle.(Acuna 2013) A lot of these purchases of the novel are by women, and “nine out of ten times the purchase was for ‘pleasure/relaxation’” (Who’s Really Reading _50 Shades_? 2012). As _50 Shades of Grey_ started out as fanfic it’s not a jump to say a least a portion of these buyers are also fanfic readers. _50 Shades_ was released June 20, 2011. According to the CDC, hospital emergency visits in 2010 for the 18-44 age range was 52,697. In 2011 that total was 56,436. In 2015, the number was 54,592. It is further broken down by sex. In 2010, for every one hundred people to visit the emergency room, 57 were women. In 2011, it increased to 59, and in 2015 it was back down to 57. (Table 76 2000-2015) There is an increase in women visiting emergency departments in 2011, which was when the book was released, but it is not significant. Also, the amount of women goes back to 2010 numbers in 2015. These statistics are probably not related to the _50 Shades of Grey_ phenomenon considering the movie adaptation was released in the year 2015, and became number one at the box office with 558.5 million dollars made. ( _50 Shades_ (novel series))Censorship is a dangerous practice that only leads to more censorship. People have different tastes, and different kinks. If someone writes about incest, it doesn't mean they are practicing incest. If someone has a rape fantasy, it doesn't mean they support rape. If someone has an underaged ship, it doesn't mean they are sexually attracted to children. Antis' arguments are not supported by facts, and instead are driven by fear.

The most accepted definition of the loss of virginity is penetration. This definition is not only exclusionary to lesbians, but to heterosexual women's pleasure. 75% of women are incapable of vaginal orgasms. If sex is defined as only penetration it focuses on men's pleasure. In fact, on average, men have three orgasms to every one that a woman has. Some would argue that this is because women take longer to orgasm. That is not the case. The average time to orgasm through masturbation is the same for men and women, four minutes. Also, women who have sex with other women have higher rates of orgasms than heterosexual women. (Wetzel 2108) Teesha Morgan, a practicing sex therapist, says that she often sees women who are ashamed of their bodies. So ashamed of their bodies that they don't masturbate, and rely on their partner exclusively for sexual pleasure. (Morgan 2105) This brings the conversation back to shaming women for their bodies, and saying that little girls shouldn't learn from these women. Why shouldn't they? Women are so insecure about their bodies, they won't touch themselves, or learn the facts about how sexual pleasure is different for women, relying mainly on clitoral stimulation rather than penetration.

In the context of shaming women for their bodies and sexual fantasies, fanfic is subversive. Women feel free to explore their fantasies in a safe space. A space that is filled with other fans, a space filled with people who share their kinks. It normalizes women's sexual pleasure. When the rest of the world seems to be screaming that what women like is wrong, fanfic is encouraging them to explore what turns them on. So many people discover their kinks, or their squicks through the reading of fanfic. People have discovered their sexuality through fanfic. Chelsea Reynolds, an assistant professor at California State University Fullerton, makes a point that “[i]n the media, representations of sexuality are still mostly white, cisgendered, and heterosexual. For many, fanfiction represents an important site of resistance, sexual exploration, and identity transformation” (Joho 2018). In 2007, The Organization of Transformation Works was started as a nonprofit by fans. Their mission is “to serve the interests of fans by providing access to and preserving the history of fanworks and fan culture in its myriad forms” (About the OTW). Archive of Our Own (AO3), a project of the organization, hosts fanfic. AO3 is unlike any other platform that hosts fanfic. It is not restrictive, it is a nonprofit, and hosts fanfic from all fandoms. The site is run by over 700 volunteers. It relies on fundraisers, which it holds twice a year. This has recently been a source of controversy in fandom. Some people have come out against AO3's fundraisers, basically questioning why the organization needs to raise so much money every year. Obviously, servers cost money. However, the real reason people are questioning and attacking AO3, is because of what it hosts. They have a library of over 4.5 million works, where no fic is really considered off-limits. Basically, as long as it's legal, it can be posted. It's a safe space for a reader to explore what they want in fic. This upsets people who think rape, underage sex, and incest should be banned topics from fanfiction. (Busch 2109) More than likely, this is where the backbone of the anti-AO3 people lies. However, there are no advertisers or corporations to go after, therefore, they go after the users themselves, and they appear to be starting with questioning the money. There have also been posts on Tumblr that accuse AO3 of supporting pedophiles. A blogger on Tumblr, joestrummen, posted, “i didn’t realise ao3 was started in response to lj deleting account relating to [pedophilia] and they explicitly support the posting of such works yikes.” There is an extensive tagging system on the site. It was designed by librarians. It allows the writer to tag as they please, and to include warnings that might trigger readers. Ultimately, the reader is responsible for their experience on AO3. They are able to search the tags for tags they want included, and more importantly, they can exclude tags that they don't want included. Readers can create their own experience. The organization’s inclusive policy has angered many antis, but it can’t be denied that it is a very popular site. It gets about six million visitors a day, and it is the number two literature site. However, the A03 statement is “No one, including the OTW as an organization, makes money from the archive or its content; in fact, the opposite is true because the OTW pays to host the archive. Advertising is not shown. Instead, we hold public radio-style pledge drives to ask for support from our users” (Frequently Asked Questions). (fangasmagorical) Being a nonprofit organization means it is not motivated by sponsors, which in turn means that sponsors can’t threaten to pull their ads for “questionable” content.

Besides antis, another group that is harmful to fandoms and fandom creations', are people that indulge in ship wars. One of the rules of fandom was that nobody talks about fandom, especially to the creators and actors of the thing you are a fan of. In a way, this rule causes shame. If people aren’t allowed to talk about fandom outside of fandom, they can feel like their passion is shameful, to be kept secret. However, there is somewhat of a solid reason behind this rule. Lately, fans have been rabid about their ships becoming canon. To clarify, some ships are canon, and some are fanon. Canon ships are ships that have happened in the canon of the show, book, movie, whatever. Fanon ships are ships that are not canon, and probably never will be. They are ships that fans ship because they like the idea of the two characters together. Most people who ship fanon ships are fully aware that their ship is not going to become canon. However, this is not the case for every fan that ships a fanon ship. In the case of _Harry Potter_ , Harry/Hermione shippers became irate when J.K. Rowling gave an interview where she clearly stated that the endgame ship was Ron/Hermione. Fans “began to openly insult Rowling, calling into question her talent as a writer, denigrating her for being divorced, and even insulting her personal appearance.” (McBride 2018)These ship wars can create their own type of Antis. For example, _Supernatural_ has a fandom ship war between Destiel (a ship between Dean Winchester and Castiel) and Wincest (a ship with Sam and Dean Winchester). The war has become somewhat of a breeding ground for antis, with people going into the Wincest tags on Tumblr, telling shippers to kill themselves. Wincest shippers have been accused of supporting incest in real life, being pedophiles, and being homophobic. Another controversial ship in fandom is _Teen Wolf_ 's Sterek (a ship between Stiles Stilinski and Derek Hale). The main character of _Teen Wolf_ , Scott, is Latino. Sterek shippers have been accused of being racist since their ship is composed of two white men, and some of it is Scott negative. Sterek shippers, like wincest shippers, have also been accused of being pedophiles. Are there some truth to these claims? Short answer, it doesn't matter. People are allowed to ship what they want to ship. Shipping a fictional ship has no bearing on their actions outside of fandom. Pedophiles aren’t molesting children because of fandom, and racists aren't hurting people because of fandom. Can political views be reflected in fanfic? Absolutely. The difference is, is that fandom doesn't give litmus tests for ships.

Closely related to ship wars, and antis that come from these ship wars, it's important to discuss creators', actors', and other people's reactions to ships. There is a rule in fandom that ships are never discussed with people involved with the original content. However, this rule has been broken recently, and as such, there are certain reactions that need to be discussed. Certain shows, and other platforms have been accused of queerbaiting, which is setting up a queer relationship without following through. In some cases this appears to be true, like in the case of _Hannibal_ and _Sherlock_ , and in some cases look to be a little bit of a stretch like with _Supernatural_ and _Teen Wolf._ There are nods to Destiel in _Supernatural_ , but there also nods to Wincest, and a few other ships. _Teen Wolf_ is a bit more debatable. Sterek doesn't exist in the text, but through interviews and promos, the ship is certainly played up. Also, Stiles's character is queerbaited. He is implied to be bisexual in the first season or two of the show, but this is never followed up with. For example, he asks Danny, a gay character, whether or not he finds him attractive. He also asks this question to his best friend Scott. He also doesn’t answer a question that he’s asked at a party whether he likes boys or not. He is a character that has never said that he is straight, and in fact is strongly hinted to be bisexual. Even the creator, Jeff Davis, has dropped hints in interviews that the character is bisexual. When asked about Stiles and his possible bisexuality, Jeff Davis responded, “I feel like that could enter into spoiler territory. We always have hinted” (Teen Wolf Panel – Jeff Davis on Stiles’s Bisexuality). 

While antis are a big problem in fandom, they are mostly a fringe community. What has the biggest impact on fandom is capitalism. The Tumblr purge is a perfect example of this. Tumblr was found to have an actual case of child pornography on their site, because of this their app was taken out of the Apple store. Keep in mind that Tumblr has a report feature, where a user can report a blog that violates the Terms of Service. In the past, blogs that had child pornography were reported by users. There were also blogs that featured bestiality, these blogs would also be reported.Which means that Tumblr was aware of the problem. However, it took the Apple ban for them to do anything, and their response was to ban all pornography including “female presenting nipples.” They also banned a few search terms. Some were expected, such as nsfw and porn; others search terms banned however, included things like gay and Tumblr purge. Interestingly, after the ban on Tumblr was put into place, they are still many porn bot blogs and white nationalist groups that are still running rampant. It can only be concluded that while porn is offensive, racism is not. Maybe the argument of free speech could be brought up, but isn't expressing yourself sexually also free speech? Why is one considered acceptable and not the other. One word, money. This is not the first time Apple has banned NSFW content from their store. Apple “does not allow apps ‘that contain user generated content that is frequently pornographic.”’ Also, in 2016, Apple deleted all third party Reddit apps that allowed users to view NSFW posts. Steve Jobs said, “folks who want porn can buy an Android phone.” (Koebler and Cole 2018). Some other purges are also rooted in capitalism. For example, the purge of Livejournal, and Fanfiction.net were very much business related, while being related to antis. Proving that the only people that the antis are helping are the advertisers.

A group that has been hurt by the fandom purges is the LGBTQ. This is not a new thing, and doesn't just affect fandom. When porn is banned it's usually marginalized communities that are come for first. In the 80s and 90s a group of radical feminists who were anti-porn as they believed that all porn was harmful to women, got together with the religious right and got some anti-porn laws passed. In fact, there was a law passed in Canada that stopped the importation of obscene material into the country. This law cam from the case _Butler v. the Queen_ , and was supposed to ban porn that was “‘degrading’ and ‘dehumanizing’ to women” (Strossen 19). Porn began getting seized at the U.S./Canadian border. Specifically, gay porn. Gay bookstores went out of business in Canada because their stock was getting taken. Meanwhile porn that was made for straight men was having no trouble getting through to Canada at all. In fact, a gay bookstore named Little Sisters discovered that it wasn't just pornography being taken at the border, but anything that was deemed LGBT. The owners of the bookstore took Canada Customs to court. While they celebrated a victory in 2000 in the Supreme Court their stock was still being seized by customs. They again sued customs, but ultimately couldn't pay the legal fees and were forced to drop the case. (Brethour 2018) The Canadian law did not just stop with _Butler_ , they passed other legislation as well. Some that would directly effect fandom. Serial killer trading cards were banned, and there was also a law “making it a crime to make, print, publish, import, distribute, or sell-and in some cases even possess-any depiction of a sexual act by anyone under eighteen years old, even in fiction and art” (Strossen 240) **.** This law was in fact enforced, and resulted in the prosecution of Eli Langer, an artist from Toronto. His paintings were seized from an art gallery called the Mercer Union. His artwork contained children and adults in sexual acts. However, the children were not real. Langer did not use models, just his imagination. Ultimately, the case was dropped due to outrage in the arts community. If Langer had been prosecuted fully, he would have faced up to ten years in prison, and hefty fines. As it stood, prosecutors in the case wanted to destroy Langer’s artwork, even though the case was dropped. There is a provision to this law that exempts “works with artistic merit (as well as educational, scientific, or medical value)” (Strossen 241).However, if Langer’s work was seized out of an art gallery, how likely is it the fanfiction would be seen as having artistic value? It is often a struggle to get fanfiction and fanart seen as legitimate forms of art by the mainstream community. The courts would probably not see it as such.

When adult content is banned on a safe platform, frequently the biggest losers are the LGBTQ community and women. People had a lot of LGBTQ content purged from Livejournal during Strikethrough. A lot of the fic that was erased on Fanfiction.net was slash fic. As stated previously, when the Tumblr purge started happening LGBTQ content was not able to be searched for. The tags “gay” and “queer” would automatically deem the post NSFW. Tumblr was a place where people could explore their sexuality, could celebrate their OTPs (One True Pairing). It was place fans could discuss what made their pairings so perfect. While it is still a place that fans can discuss, they can't illustrate. They also can't tag their fanfiction as NSFW without it getting flagged. Although Tumblr promised at the beginning of the porn ban that it would still allow erotica, the platform is not allowing erotica to be tagged as NSFW, as the tag NSFW is flagged, and sometimes deleted without letting the blogger know. Other tags that have been essentially banned due to them being unsearchable include: fuck, porn, horny, erotic, orgasm, bdsm, sexual, vagina, breasts, foreskin, suicide, semen, and ejaculation. Any tags with these words will not come up in a search. Not all of these words are porn related, as can be seen. However, searchable tags include: white pride, white power, whites only, aryan, volkisch, n*gger, ch*nk, and more.This reinforces the idea that Tumblr finds pornography offensive, but not racism. The argument can be made that hate speech is protected under the first amendment as ruled by the supreme court multiple times. However, this same argument can be said for the NSFW content that was purged. The takeaway here is that Tumblr is a business as opposed to a government agency, and they have the right to create their own terms of service. It is interesting, though, that they chose to eliminate pornography, or what they define as pornography, and didn’t choose to also eliminate hate speech. Or more accurately that Apple finds pornography to be the most offensive of the two. Creators tag to inform users of the content of their creation. It is important to be able to tag erotica to keep Tumblr a safe space. So Tumblr has banned erotica while repeating the narrative that they haven't. This has made fans go back to the lemon tagging system of old to work around their filters.The lemon tagging system was comprised of tagging a work lemon if there was sexual content. Religious reasons have had a history of influencing the censorship of fiction. This fiction usually ended up being gay porn, while porn made for straight men was left alone. Conservative Christians have always advocated censoring pornography from women, and claimed that LGBT pornography was harmful. In fact, these conservatives teamed up with radical feminists, especially in the early and mid 90s to try to “protect” women from porn. Radical feminist is a bit of a misnomer here. These feminists are radical in that their platform is far removed from other feminists. However, rather than radical feminists, they should probably be referred to as right-wing feminists, considering how often their views line up with the conservative party. (Strossen 107) In fact, rad fems are also against gay porn, as it puts men in the role of women, the position of being penetrated. Penetration “causes pain, but the pain enhances the pleasure...As a result, fucking is inherently sadistic because it is necessarily both pain and pleasure,” (Dworkin 1979). Yes, according to rad fems, the act of penetration is sadism. This quote suggests that rad fems aren’t only antipornography, but also antisex in general. At least, sex that includes penetration.

It's important to mention that content that has had mainly women in the fandom has also been derided. For example, _Star Trek_ the birthplace for modern slash fic was not always seen as quality content by mainstream science fiction fans, i.e. white males. When it was first released, it was seen as “fake sci-fi for girls” (prokopetz)It was women that organized the conventions, and started a letter writing campaign that kept the show on the air after the season in 1968. (Mizzi 2014) This is true for other things as well such as boy bands, romance novels, and of course fanfiction. That is not to say that no men were involved in these things, but the main consumers of them are women. Romance is the only fiction genre that is not taken seriously by critics. Romance is also the genre that is mostly written by women and read by women. The Beatles were a boy band that grew so much in popularity that men started to pay attention, but the original audience was mostly women, and they were ridiculed. Women have been given the nerd test when they go to conventions in cosplay, quizzed about the canonical history of the character they are dressing as. Men have fandoms as well, but these fandoms are generally taken seriously. For example, sports is a huge fandom for men. Not that only men are interested in sports, just like not only women are interested in fanfiction. In fact, there are fics written about sports. However, the culture of sports is male. They are seen as predominately male oriented events. This can be seen by what sports are popular, compared to what sports women have been allowed to participate in professionally. For example, football and baseball are massively watched sports. There are frequent watch parties for the World Series and the Super Bowl. The Super Bowl especially draws in huge amounts of money through tickets, and advertisements. Compare these events to women’s sports teams, and it can be seen they don’t get nearly the same amount of attention or money. However, just because sports are male focused doesn't mean sports are not problematic in their own right. Some major sports players have been convicted of rape, spousal abuse, animal abuse, etc. Some, while not having been convicted, have been accused. Yet, where are the antis of the sports community? The people that are calling for certain leagues and teams to be disbanded, or rather for a more accurate comparison, calling for all players to not be allowed to marry anymore and live a life of celibacy, since all marriage can lead to abuse. This is the same premise when sites ban all NSFW, instead of just going after illegal content.

So, what is legal when it comes to fiction and art? When it comes to fiction, pretty much everything. There are no victims in fiction, rather that means underage, rape, murder, torture, incest, etc. These things are happening to fictional characters, and yes, sometimes they are written to be sexually stimulating. However, having a sexual fantasy is not illegal. What is illegal is having real victims. Fiction is imagination, made up. No matter how abhorrent to the reader, it is not illegal to produce. With art, the same can be said. The legal definition of child pornography is “any visual depiction, including any photograph, film, video, picture, whether made or produced by electronic, mechanical, or other means, of sexually explicit content, where A) the production of such visual depiction involves the use of a minor engaging in sexually explicit content; B) such visual depiction is a digital image, computer image, or computer-generated image that is, or is indistinguishable from, that of a minor engaging in sexually explicit conduct; or C) such visual depiction has been created, adapted, or modified to appear that an identifiable minor is engaging in sexual explicit conduct” (U.S. Code 2256 Definitions for chapter).The content hosted on sites like Archive of Our Own is not illegal. That is the end of the argument. Said content might offend people. If it does, then this content was not written for those people. A lot of the people that write rape, underage, incest fics are survivors. It's a coping mechanism for survivors. This isn't true for all of this fic though. Some of it is just fetishes, sexual fantasies. Some of it is there as hurt/comfort fics, where authors like to hurt their characters before making them get all their cuddles. And some of them are related to shipping. Sometimes a ship in the fandom is in incest ship. This is not because people are super into incest (although sometimes it plays into it), it's because people see chemistry between those characters. The major point here, is that this kind of content might be distasteful to some, but it is not illegal. If content is banned based on moral grounds, then where does that leave content? Whose morals will determine what content is allowed? Eventually everything offends someone, and then no content is left.

Political discourse in fandom is also important to look at, especially in consideration to Antis, and the buzz word of pedophilia. Antis use the current political climate to fulfill their goals. They present people with a manipulative fear based choice. Do people want to stop pedophilia or do they want to support uncensored fanfiction? Of course when a question is framed in this way, the choice seems obvious. However, it is a false choice. It's the same thing advertisers do. Do people want to buy their product or do they want a miserable existence? It's marketing, and it works. It especially works with big businesses, because it works with advertisers. People who aren't familiar with fanfiction and fandom but are familiar with pedophilia. It all comes down to money for businesses, and moral outrage for antis. The problem is, is that this choice is supposed to be seen as progressive. Censorship is being marketed as feminism and social justice. This can be seen with _50 Shades of Gray_. The whole argument against the novel is that it might promote women into engaging in harmful BDSM practices. This argument is actually anti-feminist. The basis of the argument is that women shouldn't read pornography, especially this type of pornography, because it might be harmful to them. They’ll let men take advantage of them because they won't know any better, which in the age of search engines, is insulting to women. The argument that pornography should be banned because it's harmful to women is still trying to control women. It's the same argument that women shouldn't wear revealing clothing because men have convinced them that they have to. That women shouldn't women wear makeup because all it does is give in to the patriarchy. The irony is that all of these arguments lead to the same thing, telling women that they don't know what they want, from their wardrobe to their sexual fantasies, because men secretly control their behavior, is trying to control women's behavior. The use of the word pedophilia in fandom spaces by antis does effectively the same thing. It's a fear tactic, a measure of control, and it works. Just like the _50 Shades of Gray_ attack worked. It especially works if the person has no former knowledge of the subject, like advertisers and businesses have no knowledge of fanfiction. The antis objective was easy to achieve with the buzzwords they used, just like advertisers are trying to sell something, so are antis.

This political discourse in fandom has shifted over to shipping in fandom. As has been discussed, certain pairings are attacked by antis for being underage, or incestuous. However, there is the belief among some in fandom that the only ship that should be allowed is a healthy ship. Fans object to certain ships because they are not models of healthy relationships. The argument is much like the argument for the underaged and incestuous ships; that these ships will teach other fans that these kind of relationships are healthy and something to strive for. However, fans that ship these ships are aware of the problems. For example, fans that ship heroes with villains, or fans that ship a seemingly abusive relationship.

Why should people care about what happens with the future of fandom? Of course, it matters to fans to have safe and open places to share their work. Fans are always jumping from one site to another in the hopes of finding their permanent home, only to be disappointed by antis, advertisers, and big business. All of these things add up to fans losing over and over again. Fanfiction is seen as something to embarrassed of, something that is usually made fun of by the mainstream media. Which is pretty common, as stated previously for things that women like, and participate in. Especially when it comes to women expressing their sexual desires. It is important to discuss the history of women's sexuality and sexual desires and how they have been viewed by men. When the word men is used here, it is in reference mainly to straight men. The history of men repressing women's sexual pleasure is extensive. Hojatoleslam Kazem Sedighi, an Iranian cleric, said, “Many women who do not dress modestly lead young men astray and spread adultery in society which increases earthquakes” (Ryan 2010). It’s the same old argument. Blaming women for a man’s inabilty to take no for an answer. Men aren't the only guilty parties as well. Radical feminists have a decent following on Tumblr, and other social media platforms.Radfems are anti-porn in all forms, and they are also usually anti-transgender. They are also anti-sex workers in all forms, like prostitution and stripping.The current political situation in the United States should also be taken into account. Donald Trump, a conservative businessman with no political experience, was elected into office. This relates to big business having more power than ever, and those businesses using that power accordingly, like threatening to pull their advertisements from social media platforms. So, why should people outside of fandom care about what is going on inside of fandom? Because it’s not just happening in fandom. Women are being sexually repressed and oppressed everywhere. Fandom is not just important for fandom’s sake, but as a microcosm. Fandom has a real world impact, which will be shown later in the argument.

People have found there to be more benefits of fanfic than just the obvious. For example, from a desire to read and write fanfiction that receive more hits and views, fans have learned and greatly improved their understanding of the English language.They also developed a community that would support them. Fans have supported each other through homelessness, spousal abuse, suicidal thoughts, and other issues. They have given each other not only emotional support and encouragement, but financial support as well. Fans share each other’s paypal information, as well as their gofundme pages. There is no denying that there is a toxic side to fandom, but it's in the minority.

It’s interesting to note that sex has also been suppressed in dictatorships. Sex is referring to anything that the particular regime deemed as obscenity or pornography. These dictatorships include but are not limited to: Nazi Germany, Communist China and Russia, South Africa, Iran, and Iraq. The works labeled as pornography or obscenity don’t stop at explicit sexual expression however. Other things that were included in this category were materials that expressed political protest against the regime. For example, “[t]he white supremacist South African government banned black writing as ‘pornographically immoral.’ (Strossen 219) Each of these regimes told their subjects the same thing, that it was to protect them, that it was for their own good. The United States can be seen as also going towards this slippery slope of censorship. While it is legal for corporations to decide what they do or do not want in their offices, or on their websites, the fact remains that pornography or anything they decide constitutes as such, is slowly being eradicated from fandom spaces. Fans who are comprised as mostly women, while men’s spaces are left alone. Puritanical societies that suppress sexual speech and expression hurt not only women and minorities, but also political speech. 

While it’s not directly related to fandom, or pornography, there are current political arguments that justify their positions by saying that the action would hurt women. For example, recently Republicans have spoke out against the Equality Act, an act that aims to expand the Civil Rights Act of 1964 to include sexual orientation and gender identity. Conservatives argue that it would place the needs of people that are biologically male over the needs of women. The Alliance Defending Freedom, a Christian organization, said that the Act “victimizes women and empowers the government to coerce uniformity.” This reaction to the Equality Act should be mentioned not only because of the argument that it hurts women, which is the exact same argument against pornography, but also because this is a similar position that radical feminists have about transgender rights as well. The same radical feminists that started the anti-porn crusade in the 1970s. In fact, there are radical feminists working with the conservatives on the blocking of this bill, just like they worked with conservatives to block pornography. Julia Beck, former cochair of the Baltimore LGBTQ Commision said, “We’ve given a lot of testimony to show how this would affect women negatively.” (Holden 2019)

The buzzword for antis and conservatives, as previously discussed, is pedophilia. It is dangerous to use this word when it is not applied to actual cases of pedophilia, with actual victims and perpetrators. When a word is used too often, and used incorrectly, it changes the meaning of the word. Let’s look at sexual harassment. This term was the buzzword in the 1980s and 90s. As a result, a lot of things got labeled sexual harassment that did not fit the definition. Things like artwork, magazines that were sold in workplaces, and casual jokes. This labeling of everything that could possibly offend someone as sexual harassment, undermined real sexual harassment, which is a serious issue, just like pedophilia. It “trivialize[s] the issue, make[s] it a laughingstock, and deflect[s] attention and resources from the serious ongoing problems of gender discrimination in employment and education”(Strossen 137). An example of this is, in 1991 a waitress in Berkeley, California at a restaurant there didn’t serve a journalist because he was reading an article in _Playboy._ Her argument was that it was “sexual harassment in the workplace and a threat to women’s self-esteem.” (Strossen 134) Obviously, this is not a case of sexual harassment as the server refused to even speak to the man reading the magazine, he couldn't possibly have sexually harassed her. This case is very relevant today, both in fandom, and in general. This is what antis do in fandom. They see that a fan ships certain ships, or reads certain kinks, and they are declared to be pedophiles. This would be like reading _Lolita_ out at a restaurant, and someone refusing to serve you on the grounds that it’s pedophilia. This could also be used politically, so if someone were reading LGBTQ literature, or information about birth control and safe sex, they could claim that it violated their religious beliefs, and therefore could be considered harassment on religious grounds. In fact, this type of argument is being used to do that very thing, and put into effect through “religious freedom” laws. The point here is, is that these kinds of things downplay actual cases of sexual harassment. It is a serious issue, and it effects many women and men as evidenced by the “me too” movement, but maybe these cases would have been taken a little more seriously had it not been for the plethora of “sexual harassment” cases that came up due to anti-pornography and anti-sex views. Similarly, with the overuse of the word pedophilia, it weakens the actual meaning of the word. This can already be seen as having an effect. For example, James Gunn was fired from Marvel’s _Guardians of the Galaxy_ for jokes that he made on Twitter. Some of these jokes were over a decade old. They include, “Three Men and a Baby They Had Sex With #unromanticmovies,” and “This hotel shower is the weakest ever. Felt like a three year old was peeing on my head.” These tweets were brought out by Mike Cernovich, who is a right-wing conspiracy theorist. Cernovich was one of the founders of the “Pizzagate” conspiracy theory, which claimed that Democrats in power, including Hillary Clinton, had a pedophilia ring going out of a pizza place in Washington, DC. (Bishop 2018)Gunn was a vocal opponent of Donald Trump, and as a result of his political speech he was targeted by joke tweets he made years ago. Disney fired him because “[t]he offensive attitudes and statements discovered on [his] Twitter feed are indefensible and inconsistent with our studio’s values, and we have severed our relationship with him.” (Couch 2018) He has since been rehired by Marvel due to public outrage by fans, and Gunn’s colleagues in the industry. However, it set a precedent, and a dangerous one. According to an anonymous ask on antis-dlete-your-blogs-pls-thx’s Tumblr, some people think “antis are just bored kids...and I think they want to impress their friends and have nothing better to do.” They go on to ask “[s]omeone policing my ships or hcs or thoughts seems so unnecessary to me but here on tumblr it is a thing and idk why it should matter to anyone? I could never imagine someone irl stalking me until I stop shipping a thing. I feel like this is only mattering on tumblr.” As can be seen through real life examples, antis do matter. They do have power. They do stalk people in real life, as in the case of James Gunn, who was fired as a result of this action. One of the most dangerous things that result from their behavior is their equalizing real life to fiction, and infantilizing marginalized groups, especially women. Antis tell women that are pro-ship or pro-pornography that they’ve been brainwashed by the patriarchy, that they can’t think for themselves, and that everything they do is to please men regardless of whether they’re aware of it. Antis tell women that they are the only ones who can see past the bullshit.

A lot of fanfiction actually falls into the category of transgressive fiction, especially the fanfiction that antis are so against. Transgressive fiction is a genre that deals with the taboo, like incest, sexual violence, crime, and pedophilia. It is “a literary genre that graphically explores such topics as incest and other aberrant sexual practices, mutilation, the sprouting of sexual organs in various places on the human body, urban violence and violence against women, drug use, and highly dysfunctional family relationships, and that is based on the premise that knowledge is to be found at the edge of experience and that the body is the site for gaining knowledge.” (Chun 1995)Of course this genre includes novels like _Lolita, Fight Club, American Psycho,_ and _Requiem for a Dream._ It’s possible to also put _Flowers in the Attic_ in this category as well, but it’s not considered “literary.” Of course, not all of fanfiction falls into the genre of transgressive fiction. Fanfiction comes in many forms. However, it could be said that most of the fanfiction that is considered controversial could be labeled as transgressive. Transgressive fiction has its own share of controversy, and it has been banned from libraries and been the subject of obscenity trials. (5 Controversial Transgressive Novels) However, these works are rarely cited by antis in fandom, even though they have a lot of the same subject matter as “problematic” fanfiction. It should also be noted that most trangressive fiction is written by men, and a lot of it is now studied in college courses. 

The argument among antis about fanfiction that contains rape, incest, underage sex, and sexual abuse is that it causes such behavior by normalizing it. They argue that the more people read explicit works, the more they will think it’s okay to perform those acts, or have those acts done to them. It is interesting to note that scientists have looked into this accusation, and have come to the conclusion that sexually explicit material does not cause violence against women. In fact, most sex offenders “had less exposure to sexually explicit materials than most men, that they first saw such materials at a later age than nonoffenders, that they were overwhelmingly more likely to have been punished for looking at them as teenagers, and that they often find sexual images more distressing than arousing” (Strossen 260).Repression feeds into sexual violence more than “problematic” fiction does. A researcher named Edward Donnerstein, who is employed by the University of California at Santa Barbara said, “A good amount of research strongly supports the position that exposure to erotica can reduce aggressive responses in people who are predisposed to aggress.” And John Money, an expert on sexual violence at John Hopkins Medical School has stated, “current repressive attitudes towards sex will breed an ever-widening epidemic of aberrant sexual behavior” (Strossen 261). It’s interesting to see that the exposure to pornography actually seems to increase empathy. According to science, repression and shame are dangerous when it comes to sex, not actual sex or fantasies. So does fiction affect reality at all? The answer is yes, sort of. Fiction reflects reality. Thelma McCormack, who is the former director of York University’s Feminist Studies Centre, says, “The more traditional a person’s views are about women, the more likely he or she is to accept inequality as inevitable, functional, natural, desirable and immutable. In short, if any image of woman can be said to influence our thinking about gender equality, it is the domestic woman not the Dionysian one” (Strossen 262).There are two things about this statement that standout. The first, is that McCormack is saying that it isn’t porn that influences people, it’s mainstream media. This makes sense because more people are exposed to mainstream media, especially from young ages. The second thing that stands out is that the attitude already has to exist. Fiction does affect reality, but only if the viewer already holds those beliefs. Fiction can reinforce already held beliefs, but it can’t make a viewer believe something that is against their views. Fanfiction is not widespread, at least most fanfiction isn’t. Even the fanfiction that has become popular, like _50 Shades of Grey_ , is not considered mainstream media. It’s erotica, niche erotica even. Fanfiction that deals with incest, rape (either romanticized, or violent), masochism, sadism, gore, and underage characterizations are not even mainstream in the fandom community. They don’t have that much influence. Fanfic is also not going to implant ideas that are not already there. For example, one of the arguments against _50 Shades of Grey_ is that people, particularly women, would start experimenting with dangerous BDSM practices even if they weren’t really interested in it. This argument is flawed for two reasons. The first, that as stated by McCormack, is for beliefs to be affected by fiction is that the belief already has to exist. If the reader is repulsed or not interested in trying BDSM, reading something where the characters are practitioners of BDSM is not going to change their minds. The second reason, is that if a reader is interested in BDSM, in no way is _50 Shades of Grey_ meant to be an instructional manual. People that are interested in trying BDSM should be responsible for their own experience. Which means, they need to find legitimate references on how to safely proceed. It is not up to a fiction author to make sure that the relationships and sexual practices of their characters are healthy in order for readers to follow their examples safely.

Another way antis try to further their agenda is through having shippers defend their ships. It’s pretty common in fandom to see the argument that only abuse survivors can ship certain ships. Antis on Tumblr will message shippers of “problematic” ships and grill them about their justification for shipping it, especially if in the past the shipper has claimed to be an abuse/incest survivor. Antis harass them, and try to verify their claims. It’s true that some people use shipping as a coping mechanism, or that their kinks function as a coping mechanism. However, when shippers make the argument that coping allows them to ship certain characters, or allows them to have certain kinks, it is an argument that further helps the anti cause. It’s fine, of course, to use shipping and kinkfic as coping mechanisms; but, it shouldn't be considered a requirement to enjoy darker or taboo fiction. What a person ships, or whatever kink they have is their business, and it doesn’t require past trauma to validate it. When shippers feed into this rhetoric, they are supporting their own form of radical feminism. Sex should be enjoyed for sex’s sake alone, regardless of why it excites someone. There are similar arguments about incestuous ships. Fans will justify shipping it because it could be seen as a strong platonic bond. The argument is, is that when people ship it, it is because of how much the characters love each other. This is also a dangerous argument. As the majority of shipping culture are women, it is dangerous to tell people that experiencing sexual pleasure over a ship is wrong. Women are frequently denied seeking their own sexual pleasure. Some women are even ashamed to masturbate. They shouldn’t be made to feel shame at experiencing sexual arousal and excitement over their kinks and ships. Sex is positive and healthy, even exploring sexual fantasies. Fanfiction is a safe way to explore those sexual fantasies for a variety of reasons. For one, tags are encouraged in fanfiction. Triggers are often tagged specifically, or warned for generally. A reader knows going in whether a fic might be triggering or not. For another, fanfiction is a community. It gathers together people with the same ships, and the same kinks. It makes them feel less alone, more normal, when sexual desire for women is considered taboo all on its own. For example, rape fantasy is pretty common, both in fanfiction and in general. Having a rape fantasy, however, does not mean that the person wishes to be raped. Instead, rape fantasies tend to have the opposite effect. They give power back to women in a rape scenario. When a woman fantasizes about rape, through writing fanfiction or even just in her imagination, she controls everything. She controls what happens, what actions are taken, what responses are given, and she has the power to stop it. It is the taking of something that is horrendous, and using it to gain power back to the dis-empowered. Sexual fantasies are not dirty and wrong, they are normal. Fanfiction reinforces this idea.

Obscenity laws are tricky. No real legal definition has been established on obscenity in the United States. Different states have different laws, and on a federal level, it gets even more complicated. Right now, the United States federal government uses the standard established by _Miller v. California_. According to Cornell Law School, [t]he Miller test for obscenity includes the following criteria: (1) whether ‘the average person, applying contemporary community standards’ would find that the work ‘taken as a whole’ appeals to ‘prurient interest’ (2) whether the work depicts or describes, in a patently offensive way, sexual conduct specifically defined by the applicable state law, and (3) whether the work, ‘taken as a whole,’ lacks serious literary, artistic, political, or scientific value” (Obscenity). As can be seen by the Miller test, there is no one thing that makes something obscene, and the law relies heavily on the community to create standards for defining obscenity. However, community obscenity standards can be challenged, and might not stand up in court. There was a recent case in Florida of a man that was arrested over obscene materials on his truck. It was a sticker on the back window that declared, “I eat ass.” The man was arrested, but eventually the charges were dropped to finding the arrest a violation of his first amendment rights. (Mack 2019) In this case, it was the police officer that decided what the community standards for obscenity were, and ultimately, these standards failed to be upheld. The third part of the Miller test is what most pertains to fanfiction. Something can’t be obscene if it has artistic value. The question is, is how value is determined. It would be hard to say one work has value when another one doesn’t. After all, even if the value is just to the creator of the art or fiction, it has value. Therefore, it is probably reasonable to assume that artwork, in any form, can’t be considered obscene. Therefore, fanworks aren’t obscene under federal law. Fanworks are also protected under the fair use law. Fair use has to do with copyright law. According to Stanford University it “is any copyrighted material done for a limited and ‘transformative’ purpose, such as to comment upon, criticize, or parody a copyrighted work” (What is Fair Use?). On top of that, fanworks are free. Any work on Archive of Our Own can be accessed for free, as well as any work on Tumblr, or Dreamwidth, etc. Fans don’t charge for fanfiction, therefore, they are not profiting off of someone else’s creation. Fanfiction, at least in the United States, is protected, even though it has been targeted before by original content creators. What would happen if certain types of fanfiction were made illegal? What would happen if the antis ultimately ended up winning the battle?

Unfortunately, that question has already been answered. In the past, dictatorships have enforced censorship laws; however, the same is also true of the present. China has had a pornography ban in place since 1949. The punishment “is usually just a fine and a warning, but in 2005 the creator of China’s biggest porn site was sentenced to life in prison” (Beam 2009). However, China’s censorship laws were recently updated, and reward money for reporting explicit online materials was put at $7000 for reporting “online information and applications that endanger the physical and mental health of minors and social morality” (Qing 2018) Starting December 1, 2018 the reward was raised to $86,900 dollars for reporting illegal publishing activities. All of this has been done by four organizations in China, which include The Office of the National Work Group for “Combating Pornography and Illegal Publications,” the Ministry of Finance, the General Administration of Press and Publication, and the National Copyright Administration of China. (Qing 2108) People are reporting pornography to get the reward money. Of course, this is affecting fandoms. A lot of fanartists and fanfiction creators are going off the map to hide from the censorship laws. Fans can go to prison for creating explicit fanworks, and posting them online. Unsurprisingly, explicit homoerotic works are being especially targeted. AO3 factors in here as well. They have seen a surge of Chinese users flocking to the platform because of their lack of strict content restrictions. (Welcoming New Users to AO3 2019) This is another reason why sites like AO3 are so important to fandom. Censorship benefits no one. Nations have been trying to censor works for “the good of the people” throughout history. Ultimately, all it leads to is persecution, especially of women, people of color, and the LGBTQ community. Recently a writer in China, known only by Liu, was sentenced to ten years in prison for her novel “Occupy,” which “portrays ‘obscene sexual behavior between males’ according to a description from police”(Daugherty 2018). The censorship “guidelines include a category of ‘abnormal sexual relationships and sexual behaviors’ that lists homosexuality alongside sexual assault, abuse, and violence”(Reid 2018).

Censorship is a slippery slope. Eventually, to censor one thing is to censor all things that people are offended by. As long as someone’s freedom of speech, and their freedom of expression has no real victims, it should be allowed to exist, to provoke, to defy. It’s not just China that has been hurt by censorship. There are ongoing problems in other countries as well, including the United States. Mayhem Mal, a rapper, was arrested for song lyrics about violence towards the police. He was charged with “issuing terroristic threats and intimidating witnesses” and was put in jail in 2014. (Yandoli 2019) Of course, in this case, as in almost every case of censorship, it is the oppressed that is targeted. Rap isn’t the only music genre with violent lyrics. For example, Johnny Cash’s _Folsom Prison Blues_ features lyrics about shooting “a man in Reno just to watch him die.” Also, in Alabama the public television station refused to air an episode of _Arthur_ , a children’s television show because it contained a same _-_ sex wedding. The station said that it would, “’violate’ their audience’s trust” (Strapagiel 2019). Again, this “violation” has to do with the oppressed, this time the LGBTQ community. In India, a video game by the name of _PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds (PUGB_ ) was banned for violence. However, the censorship didn’t stop at banning, and people found playing the game were arrested. Most of these people being teenage boys. (Dixit 2019) All of these acts of censorship pertain to artwork, and to creative endeavors in general. The consequences of censorship has been shown in Canada, with people losing their livelihoods, and sometimes even the work itself; and in China where authors are being sentenced to prison for depicting gay relationships. Censorship should not be tolerated. It should be remembered that the majority make the laws, and it’s often the minorities and oppressed who suffer for them.

**Author's Note:**

> I did not make a works cited list for this, because I used a massive amount of sources. However, I do have all the articles bookmarked. If you would like a specific link, let me know. They are all cited in the text.


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